Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies

The Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies ( FARMS or short Farms, to German: Foundation for Ancient Research and mormonismusbezogene subjects ) was founded in 1979 as a private research organization and was part of the 1997 Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Since 2004, the organization Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship means ( Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Sciences).

The logo of Farms shows the program. It contains characters from the four studies on the Book of Mormon major languages ​​: top left, the Hebrew Aleph, the first letter symbol for the beginning, right below the Greek Omega, the last letter symbol for the end. Links below to find an Egyptian hieroglyph for the sun god Re as a symbol of the resurrection, and right above a stylized Mayan glyph symbolizing the Central American studies.

FARMS promotes studies and research on the Book of Mormon, the Book of Abraham, the Old and New Testament, and the study of the emergence early Christian traditions, ancient temples, and other related topics. International recognition in professional circles has FARMS acquired through intensive participation in the digitization of the scrolls from the Dead Sea and its translation.

The scientific work of FARMS appear in their own publications "Journal of Book of Mormon Studies", in scientific journals and other publishers as books that partially self-published, partly published by scholarly publishers. As in the scientific world generally customary, subject to the work of FARMS the review and critique of their colleagues and be prepared according to generally accepted scientific standards.

The only German translations of publications FARMS in printed form are published by LDS BOOKS.

Controversies

F.A.R.M.S. is known for his critical book reviews of works that deal with their field of work. This particularly critical works that come with the intention of Mormon to debunk the book as a forgery and uncover the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a series of fraud and violence, very bad off. Of course, the authors of such works try the credibility of FARMS to shake.

A fairly small, extremely liberal group within the Church considers the hypotheses with which FARMS approach the research, especially the consideration of the Book of Mormon as a true historical account of actual events, as too naive.

Furthermore, members who follow the traditional views on the Book of Mormon and consider the history of the Church undifferentiated concern that FARMS could find unpleasant facts which could weaken the faith and promote dispute. These people, if they ever deal with the topic, feel the scientific dispute as unchristian.